Return to camp
by Bonnefeta
Summary: 12 years after the events of the film, Alison is now married with an eight year old daughter. In between jobs as head chef she decides to help out in the Takota kitchens once again, and watch over her daughters first time at camp. A next gen fic about the gang from Camp Takota, featuring all your favourites.
1. Chapter 1

Alison yawned loudly, stretching her arms and grumbling groggily. She turned over in the bad and slammed her palm down on her alarm clock and swore quietly at it. A soft chuckle came from the other side of the bed "You can swear at it all you want, but it won't mean you don't have to get up".

Alison growled jokingly at her partner "I hate you sometimes"

Anne Grinned at Alison and wrapped her arms around Alison's waist "No you don't, you love me"

Alison chuckled and said, "Yes dear" before getting out of bed and walking into the kitchen.

Being a professional chef Alison had invested quite a bit in her kitchen, it was one of her favourite places to go. She'd modelled it pretty heavily after the kitchen a Takota, admittedly with a few alterations, but it felt familiar and she felt very comfortable in it.

As she yawned and went to grab some milk out of the fridge for pancakes, it was her daughters first time going off to camp, and Alison was going with her.

Her wife was a nurse and had, for much of the time they'd been together, worked night shifts. And with the hours that Alison worked as head chef, they basically became a nocturnal couple. Which worked fine, until they had Mary. Even when she was younger it had worked well, but when she entered school things had become harder. Anne had started doing day shifts, she was a senior nurse so it wasn't that hard to switch around, but Alison had a harder time. After what seemed like an eternity, but was actually about a year, she got a job working at an inner-city restaurant from just after the breakfast rush, to just before prep for the dinner rush. But she didn't start for another couple months, so Alison decided to quit her current job and spend the summer up a Takota with Mary, working in the kitchen of course.

Max had been thrilled when Alison called, they kept in close contact and she Max and Elise would meet up every so often for drinks and a catch up. Alison was excited to see Max and was actually excited to be working in the Takota kitchen again, and she might just be a little over protective of her daughter.

Mary could take care of herself, Alison knew that, but there was still a part of her that worried that she wouldn't like camp, that she'd miss home. Alison didn't really 'go away' to camp, she and her mother lived in the small town near Takota, and her mother had worked in the kitchens, so she never really got homesick.

Anne had joked that Alison would have dropped everything and raced up to Takota to bring her little girl home if she heard so much as a whisper that Mary was homesick. Alison had laughed her off but it was probably true, Alison loved her little girl, and wanted her to be happy. She'd always liked children and was ridiculously excited when she and Anne had a little girl of their own; she wanted to give her everything. It's a good thing Anne was there to keep her in check or Mary would be the most spoiled girl in the world.

Alison sighed thinking about what was to come in the next few months, when she noticed a little figure move behind the pantry door. She smiled and tiptoed over to the large pantry doors, opening them suddenly to reveal Mary, holding a tub of nutella and some artisan bread.

Alison chuckled "I guess we both had the same idea hu?"

Mary smiled up at her mom "Breakfast?"

"Yep" Alison said "how about this, you put back the bread, and we put the nutella on the pancakes?"

Mary grinned widely "Sounds good Ma"

Alison laughed has her little girl raced around the kitchen to collect pancake toppings. Mary resembled her Anne than Alison, her skin was a rich brown and her hair fell in loose black curls on her head. Though she looked like Anna she seemed to take after Alison more in terms of personality, she was an expert liar, a master of puns, and got the same kick out of messing with people as Alison did.

Mary smiled at her mom, proudly showing off how well she remembered Alison's pancake recipe. Alison went over to the counter and checked all the ingredients, she made a tisking noise and said "Close squirt, very close, but you forgot the vanilla extract"

Mary kicked herself for forgetting and ran over to retrieve it. After a few second of rifling through the extract drawer she found the bottle and brought it back to her Ma, "Here you go" she said handing it to her Ma.

Alison smiled at her "Why thank you milady" she said and began putting together the pancakes.

After a huge breakfast of pancakes, which Anne joined them for, Alison and Mary loaded the luggage into the car and said their goodbyes to Anne.

"Bye Mom" Mary said hugging her mother tightly "I'll miss you"

Anne smiled "I'll miss you to honey, I'll write soon I promise". And with one last tight hug Mary clambered into the car.

Alison smiled at her wife, giving her a loving hug "I love you, and I'm going to miss you"

Anne smiled into Alison's shoulder "Remember to write you ass, don't forget." She looked into Alison's eyes "I love you"

Alison kissed her softly "I love you to"

"MA!" Mary called from the car, Alison and Anne laughed.

"Time for you to get going" Anne said

Alison headed over to the car "See you soon" she cried before driving away, off to camp.


	2. Staff situation

3 Months earlier

Max slammed her head on the table and groaned "I'm never going to have enough staff!"

Chet walked in and gently put his hand on her shoulders and rubbed "What's wrong Max?"

"I'm still two councillors short, the new chef is fine and has signed on for the next 8 years at least, but she's got no experience and needs some help this season and no one will be employed to help with the money I'm offering and we don't have any room in the budget for more" she gave a frustrated sigh and leaned back into Chet's massage "What am I going to do?"

Max jumped as the phone rang and she reached over to pick it up "Maxine Myers manager of Camp Takota, how can I help you?"

"Hey Max!" Allison's voice said through the phone "How're you doing?"

Max sighed dramatically "Not great Ally, I'm understaffed for this year"

"Understaffed?" Allison sounded interested

Max took a large gulp of 'fibre nuts' and replied "Yeah, I've found a cook who was willing to sign an eight year contract"

"Eight years? What kind of idiot would stick around for that long?" Allison joked

Max laughed "Har, har Ally. Anyway, she'd signed on for the eight years, but she has no experience and I need someone to come in and help her, just for this season. But no one will do for anywhere near as much as I can afford" she took a long breath "Sorry I was just ranting at Chet and now I'm ranting at you."

Allison laughed on the other end of the phone "It's ok Max, I'm calling about Mary actually"

Max smiled "Oh yeah, it's her first year at camp isn't it?" Max grinned "How are you coping mamma bear?"

Allison scoffed "I can handle it Max" she paused for a second "but I might just make your day"

Max raised an eyebrow "How?"

Max could practically feel Allison's grin over the phone "Well, I got a new job"

Max smiled "Oh, congratulations Ally"

"Yeah, thanks. But I don't start till the end of the summer" Allison let that hang in the air for a moment.

Max's eyes widen "You'd really come back?"

Allison smiled "I'd love to Max"

Max grinned widely "You are a life saver Ally!" Max rifled through her documents and signed up Allison and Mary "I'll owe you forever, see you in a few months"

Max turned and smiled at Chet who brought in two mugs of warm coffee "You know Chet, I might just pull this together."


	3. Are we there yet?

Mary sighed, looking out at the rolling countryside "Are we there yet Ma?" she grumbled.

Allison sighed "No sweetie, it's about another twenty minutes". Mary sighed even more theatrically.

Allison rolled her eyes at Mary "You think this is bad? When I was your age it was a twenty minute drive to the nearest cinema, twenty minutes is nothing kid"

Mary looked out the front window, staring silently at the road. Allison lated a few minutes before breaking the silence "What's wrong kiddo?"

Mary shifted uncomfortably and mumbled something under her breath.

Allison sighed "c'mon squirt, make this easy for me"

Mary looked down and twiddled her thumbs and said slightly more loudly "I don't wanna go to camp"

Allison blinked, surprised "But you've been excited about this for weeks, this morning you where ecstatic" she looked over at her daughter "Where's this come from?"

Marry sniffed softly "What if no one there likes me? What if I hate it?"

Allison smiled affectionately at her daughter "Oh, sweet heart, I get it. I was scared the first time I went to camp to"

Mary raised an eyebrow suspiciously at her mom "Yeah? I thought you said you'd been basically an honorary camper for years before you started"

Allison laughed "Yes, that's true" she paused remembering her first time as a real camper "But my first actual year was very different"

-Bonnefeta-

Eight year old Allison stood quietly behind her mother's leg as the campers poured in. it wasn't her first drop off day, in fact Allison had seen so many drop off days she couldn't imagine her summer starting any other way. But this year would be different, this year she wouldn't get to spend the summer with her Mom in the mess making tater tots and stealing cookies, getting to go back to her and her Mom's own cabin and being able to crawl into her Mom's bed when she had nightmares. This year Allison was going to be in a cabin with other girls her age. She'd have to do all the activities, and she wouldn't have her Mom around to look after her, sure her Mom was at the camp but they wouldn't see each other much.

She looked down at her sneakers, what if the other girls didn't like her? What if she did something embarrassing? In previous years she had been like an adorable little sister to the campers, but now she would be one of them.

She wrapped her hands around her mom's leg. Melisa Henry looked down at her little girl, smiling at her as she nervously clung to her leg.

Melisa stroked Allison's hair "What's wrong baby?" she asked, her strong southern accent soothing her daughter.

Allison shuffled, kicking the dirt "Nuthin"

Melisa chuckled "Don't look like nothing to me" she crouched down to her daughters level "C'mon baby, What's wrong?"

Allison sighed "What if no one likes me? What if I hate it?"

Melisa smiled at the little girl "Now baby, what's not to love about you?" Allison chuckled "Listen, I think you're going to love camp, and make some great friends" Allison shrugged, Melisa continued "And if you don't like it? Well you can always come see me and we can go back to cooking tots, ok?" Allison looked up a her mom nodded. Melisa grinned "Now, get out from behind my leg and go make some new friends"

-Bonnefeta-

Allison stood nervously in the door of her cabin, looking into the room at the bunks and bags of people already there. She took a deep breath and stepped into the room and was immediately confronted by an excited redhead.

"Hey, I'm Maxine, you must be one of our bunk mates. This is so exciting, we're gonna be best friends I just know it!" Allison was stunned by the girl's energetic reaction. "This summer is going to be the best ever. Oh" she said pointing to a thin sandy blonde haired girl sitting on one of the bunks "This is Elise, we've already me, obviously. But hey, what's your name?"

Allison fumbled for a second, shocked at having been given a chance to speak "Um… I'm Allison"

"Well it's great to meet you Allison! C'mon let's get you unpacked"

-Bonnefeta-

"Wow, you met Aunt Max and Aunt Elise on your first day of camp?" Mary asked, shocked

Allison smiled at the happy memory "Yep, and you know what?"

"What?" Mary asked, keen to hear more.

Allison grinned at her daughter "I never ran to the mess to ask Grandma to take me out of camp"

Mary smiled at her Mom and Allison asked "So, you ready to get this show on the road?"

Mary nodded and Allison smiled as the drove the last few miles to Takota.


End file.
